King Henry IV, Part I

King Henry IV, Part I

ACT I SCENE III	London. The palace.
	Enter the KING, NORTHUMBERLAND, WORCESTER, HOTSPUR,SIR WALTER BLUNT, with others
KING HENRY IV	My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
	Unapt to stir at these indignities,
	And you have found me; for accordingly
	You tread upon my patience: but be sure	5
	I will from henceforth rather be myself,
	Mighty and to be fear'd, than my condition;
	Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
	And therefore lost that title of respect
	Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.	10
EARL OF WORCESTER	Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves
	The scourge of greatness to be used on it;
	And that same greatness too which our own hands
	Have holp to make so portly.
NORTHUMBERLAND	My lord.--	15
KING HENRY IV	Worcester, get thee gone; for I do see
	Danger and disobedience in thine eye:
	O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
	And majesty might never yet endure
	The moody frontier of a servant brow.	20
	You have good leave to leave us: when we need
	Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.
	Exit Worcester
	You were about to speak.
	To North
NORTHUMBERLAND	Yea, my good lord.
	Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,	25
	Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
	Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
	As is deliver'd to your majesty:
	Either envy, therefore, or misprison
	Is guilty of this fault and not my son.	30
HOTSPUR	My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
	But I remember, when the fight was done,
	When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
	Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
	Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress'd,	35
	Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd
	Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home;
	He was perfumed like a milliner;
	And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
	A pouncet-box, which ever and anon	40
	He gave his nose and took't away again;
	Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
	Took it in snuff; and still he smiled and talk'd,
	And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
	He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,	45
	To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
	Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
	With many holiday and lady terms
	He question'd me; amongst the rest, demanded
	My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.	50
	I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
	To be so pester'd with a popinjay,
	Out of my grief and my impatience,
	Answer'd neglectingly I know not what,
	He should or he should not; for he made me mad	55
	To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet
	And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman
	Of guns and drums and wounds,--God save the mark!--
	And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth
	Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;	60
	And that it was great pity, so it was,
	This villanous salt-petre should be digg'd
	Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
	Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
	So cowardly; and but for these vile guns,	65
	He would himself have been a soldier.
	This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
	I answer'd indirectly, as I said;
	And I beseech you, let not his report
	Come current for an accusation	70
	Betwixt my love and your high majesty.
SIR WALTER BLUNT	The circumstance consider'd, good my lord,
	Whate'er Lord Harry Percy then had said
	To such a person and in such a place,
	At such a time, with all the rest retold,	75
	May reasonably die and never rise
	To do him wrong or any way impeach
	What then he said, so he unsay it now.
KING HENRY IV	Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
	But with proviso and exception,	80
	That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
	His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;
	Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd
	The lives of those that he did lead to fight
	Against that great magician, damn'd Glendower,	85
	Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
	Hath lately married. Shall our coffers, then,
	Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
	Shall we but treason? and indent with fears,
	When they have lost and forfeited themselves?	90
	No, on the barren mountains let him starve;
	For I shall never hold that man my friend
	Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
	To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
HOTSPUR	Revolted Mortimer!	95
	He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
	But by the chance of war; to prove that true
	Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,
	Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took
	When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,	100
	In single opposition, hand to hand,
	He did confound the best part of an hour
	In changing hardiment with great Glendower:
	Three times they breathed and three times did
	they drink,	105
	Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;
	Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
	Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
	And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank,
	Bloodstained with these valiant combatants.	110
	Never did base and rotten policy
	Colour her working with such deadly wounds;
	Nor could the noble Mortimer
	Receive so many, and all willingly:
	Then let not him be slander'd with revolt.	115
KING HENRY IV	Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him;
	He never did encounter with Glendower:
	I tell thee,
	He durst as well have met the devil alone
	As Owen Glendower for an enemy.	120
	Art thou not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth
	Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer:
	Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
	Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
	As will displease you. My Lord Northumberland,	125
	We licence your departure with your son.
	Send us your prisoners, or you will hear of it.
	Exeunt King Henry, Blunt, and train
HOTSPUR	An if the devil come and roar for them,
	I will not send them: I will after straight
	And tell him so; for I will ease my heart,	130
	Albeit I make a hazard of my head.
NORTHUMBERLAND	What, drunk with choler? stay and pause awhile:
	Here comes your uncle.
	Re-enter WORCESTER
HOTSPUR	Speak of Mortimer!
	'Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my soul	135
	Want mercy, if I do not join with him:
	Yea, on his part I'll empty all these veins,
	And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust,
	But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer
	As high in the air as this unthankful king,	140
	As this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke.
NORTHUMBERLAND	Brother, the king hath made your nephew mad.
EARL OF WORCESTER	Who struck this heat up after I was gone?
HOTSPUR	He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners;
	And when I urged the ransom once again	145
	Of my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd pale,
	And on my face he turn'd an eye of death,
	Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
EARL OF WORCESTER	I cannot blame him: was not he proclaim'd
	By Richard that dead is the next of blood?	150
NORTHUMBERLAND	He was; I heard the proclamation:
	And then it was when the unhappy king,
	--Whose wrongs in us God pardon!--did set forth
	Upon his Irish expedition;
	From whence he intercepted did return	155
	To be deposed and shortly murdered.
EARL OF WORCESTER	And for whose death we in the world's wide mouth
	Live scandalized and foully spoken of.
HOTSPUR	But soft, I pray you; did King Richard then
	Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer	160
	Heir to the crown?
NORTHUMBERLAND	He did; myself did hear it.
HOTSPUR	Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin king,
	That wished him on the barren mountains starve.
	But shall it be that you, that set the crown	165
	Upon the head of this forgetful man
	And for his sake wear the detested blot
	Of murderous subornation, shall it be,
	That you a world of curses undergo,
	Being the agents, or base second means,	170
	The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?
	O, pardon me that I descend so low,
	To show the line and the predicament
	Wherein you range under this subtle king;
	Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,	175
	Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
	That men of your nobility and power
	Did gage them both in an unjust behalf,
	As both of you--God pardon it!--have done,
	To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,	180
	An plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?
	And shall it in more shame be further spoken,
	That you are fool'd, discarded and shook off
	By him for whom these shames ye underwent?
	No; yet time serves wherein you may redeem	185
	Your banish'd honours and restore yourselves
	Into the good thoughts of the world again,
	Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt
	Of this proud king, who studies day and night
	To answer all the debt he owes to you	190
	Even with the bloody payment of your deaths:
	Therefore, I say--
EARL OF WORCESTER	Peace, cousin, say no more:
	And now I will unclasp a secret book,
	And to your quick-conceiving discontents	195
	I'll read you matter deep and dangerous,
	As full of peril and adventurous spirit
	As to o'er-walk a current roaring loud
	On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.
HOTSPUR	If he fall in, good night! or sink or swim:	200
	Send danger from the east unto the west,
	So honour cross it from the north to south,
	And let them grapple: O, the blood more stirs
	To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
NORTHUMBERLAND	Imagination of some great exploit	205
	Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.
HOTSPUR	By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap,
	To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon,
	Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
	Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,	210
	And pluck up drowned honour by the locks;
	So he that doth redeem her thence might wear
	Without corrival, all her dignities:
	But out upon this half-faced fellowship!
EARL OF WORCESTER	He apprehends a world of figures here,	215
	But not the form of what he should attend.
	Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
HOTSPUR	I cry you mercy.
EARL OF WORCESTER	Those same noble Scots
	That are your prisoners,--	220
HOTSPUR	I'll keep them all;
	By God, he shall not have a Scot of them;
	No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not:
	I'll keep them, by this hand.
EARL OF WORCESTER	You start away	225
	And lend no ear unto my purposes.
	Those prisoners you shall keep.
HOTSPUR	Nay, I will; that's flat:
	He said he would not ransom Mortimer;
	Forbad my tongue to speak of Mortimer;	230
	But I will find him when he lies asleep,
	And in his ear I'll holla 'Mortimer!'
	Nay,
	I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
	Nothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it him	235
	To keep his anger still in motion.
EARL OF WORCESTER	Hear you, cousin; a word.
HOTSPUR	All studies here I solemnly defy,
	Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke:
	And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales,	240
	But that I think his father loves him not
	And would be glad he met with some mischance,
	I would have him poison'd with a pot of ale.
EARL OF WORCESTER	Farewell, kinsman: I'll talk to you
	When you are better temper'd to attend.	245
NORTHUMBERLAND	Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
	Art thou to break into this woman's mood,
	Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!
HOTSPUR	Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourged with rods,
	Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear	250
	Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.
	In Richard's time,--what do you call the place?--
	A plague upon it, it is in Gloucestershire;
	'Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept,
	His uncle York; where I first bow'd my knee	255
	Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke,--
	'Sblood!--
	When you and he came back from Ravenspurgh.
NORTHUMBERLAND	At Berkley castle.
HOTSPUR	You say true:	260
	Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
	This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
	Look,'when his infant fortune came to age,'
	And 'gentle Harry Percy,' and 'kind cousin;'
	O, the devil take such cozeners! God forgive me!	265
	Good uncle, tell your tale; I have done.
EARL OF WORCESTER	Nay, if you have not, to it again;
	We will stay your leisure.
HOTSPUR	I have done, i' faith.
EARL OF WORCESTER	Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.	270
	Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
	And make the Douglas' son your only mean
	For powers in Scotland; which, for divers reasons
	Which I shall send you written, be assured,
	Will easily be granted. You, my lord,	275
	To Northumberland
	Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd,
	Shall secretly into the bosom creep
	Of that same noble prelate, well beloved,
	The archbishop.
HOTSPUR	Of York, is it not?	280
EARL OF WORCESTER	True; who bears hard
	His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.
	I speak not this in estimation,
	As what I think might be, but what I know
	Is ruminated, plotted and set down,	285
	And only stays but to behold the face
	Of that occasion that shall bring it on.
HOTSPUR	I smell it: upon my life, it will do well.
NORTHUMBERLAND	Before the game is afoot, thou still let'st slip.
HOTSPUR	Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot;	290
	And then the power of Scotland and of York,
	To join with Mortimer, ha?
EARL OF WORCESTER	And so they shall.
HOTSPUR	In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd.
EARL OF WORCESTER	And 'tis no little reason bids us speed,	295
	To save our heads by raising of a head;
	For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
	The king will always think him in our debt,
	And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,
	Till he hath found a time to pay us home:	300
	And see already how he doth begin
	To make us strangers to his looks of love.
HOTSPUR	He does, he does: we'll be revenged on him.
EARL OF WORCESTER	Cousin, farewell: no further go in this
	Than I by letters shall direct your course.	305
	When time is ripe, which will be suddenly,
	I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer;
	Where you and Douglas and our powers at once,
	As I will fashion it, shall happily meet,
	To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,	310
	Which now we hold at much uncertainty.
NORTHUMBERLAND	Farewell, good brother: we shall thrive, I trust.
HOTSPUR	Uncle, Adieu: O, let the hours be short
	Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!
	Exeunt